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Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn has come to the defense of his pal Ryan Gosling and his critically panned directorial debut, insisting the film is a "great movie".

The Notebook actor stepped behind the camera for Lost River, which made its premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival last week (ends25May14) to scathing reviews from many critics.

The movie, starring Christina Hendricks as a struggling single mom who is drawn into a dark underworld in a mysterious town on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, drew mixed reactions from attendees at the screening, many of whom booed the picture, above a small smattering of applause.

A number of critics were quick to notice similarities between Gosling and Winding Refn's directing styles, and the Drive filmmaker is eager to praise his pal on the project.

Winding Refn tells New York Magazine, "I think it's a beautiful, beautiful, great movie that will grow on people. There are images from it that still stick with me.

"Because we're twins we make the same movie. Separated at birth, we found each other. That's the thing about twins. We stick together."

Unfortunately some reviewers found the similarities off-putting, with Kate Muir from The Times calling Lost River a "lurid mash up of (David) Lynch, Refn and (artist) Edward Hopper. In a bad way", while the Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin stating Lynch, Winding Refn and David Cronenberg's "ideas and imagery aren't developed, they're simply reproduced".